Flue structure for food service equipment unit



March 3, 1959 J. c. SCHINDLER ETAL 2,

FLUE STRUCTURE FOR FOOD SERVICE EQUIPMENT UNIT Filed Jain. 8/1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 March 1 J. c. SCHINDLER ET AL 2,875,748

FLUE STRUCTURE FOR FOOD SERVICE EQUIPMENT UNIT 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 8, 1953 United States Patent FLUE STRUCTURE FOR FOOD SERVICE EQUIPMENT UNIT James C. Schindler, Berwyn, Carl E. Spring, Worth, and Albin T. Tobiasz, Norwood Park, Ill., assignors to Leitner Equipment Company, a corporation of Illinois Application January 8, 1953, Serial No. 330,335

1 Claim. (Cl. 126-301) This invention relates to a flue structure for a food service equipment unit, and particularly to a reversible flue structure that may be used interchangeably for either vertical or horizontal exhaust.

Food service equipment units with which the present invention is concerned are used in restaurants and similar establishments serving large numbers of people. Kitchens in such places are generally provided with exhaust means for venting the fumes from cooking. Depending upon the particular construction of the kitchen, these exhaust means may be arranged to provide the food service equipment unit with a horizontally extending vent or with a vertically extending vent.

In accordance with this invention a food service equipment unit is provided with a collar having diagonally disposed parallel walls on which a flue structure is removably secured. The flue structure has extending therefrom a neck which may be connected with the exhaust means by suitably shaped sheet metal work. In order to simplify the sheet metal connections and to keep installation cost as low as possible, the flue structure is arranged to be reversibly attached to the collar of the food service equipment unit so that the neck may extend either vertically or horizontally, as desired.

This interchangeability or reversibility of the flue structure is advantageous to the manufacturer in that it makes it unnecessary to carry duplicate lines of the same units with diiferent flue structures, and is advantageous to the user in case a unit has to be moved from a kitchen having a venting system requiring one kind of flue structure to a kitchen requiring the other type of flue structure.

The structure by means of which the above and other advantages of the invention are attained will be described in detail in the following specification, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, showing a preferred illustrative embodiment of the invention, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a food service equipment unit in which the flue structure embodying the invention is mounted;

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view, taken along the line 22 of Fig. 1, showing the flue structure provided with a horizontal exhaust;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary cross sectional view, similar to Fig. 2, except that the flue structure is provided with a vertical exhaust;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary rear elevational view of the food service equipment unit shown in Fig. 3, showing the flue structure positioned in the left half and omitted from the right half of the figure;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of the removable flue structure in position for a horizontal connection to the exhaust; and

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view, similar to Fig. 5, showing the fine structure in position for a vertical connection.

Referring to the drawings, in Fig. 1 we have disclosed a food service equipment unit comprising a hollow back 2,875,748 Patented Mar. 3, 1959 section 2, a pair of side walls 3 and 4, a front wall 5, and a horizontal shelf 6. A cutting board 7 is mounted on the unit adjacent the top edge of front wall 5 and extends forwardly from the front wall. The space to the rear of the cutting board is divided in any desired manner to support a plurality of cooking units such as top burners 8. The space 9, separated from the burners 8 by a partition wall 10, is adapted to receive a deep fat fryer (not shown) or other piece of cooking equipment such as a broiler, griddle, etc. The front Wall 5 is subdivided to provide storage drawers 11 and open storage space 12.

The hollow back section 2 comprises front plate,13 and a rear plate 14 spaced therefrom. The ends of the hollow back section are closed by side walls 3 and 4. Both plates 13 and 14 have openings, 15 and 16, respectively, which are approximately aligned, and are normally concealed from view by a front wall 17 depending from shelf 6. The edge of rear plate 14 adjacent the opening 16 is bent rearwardly at an angle of about 45 to form a flange, as indicated at 18. The rear edge of shelf 6, which projects into opening 15 adjacent the upper edge thereof, has its projecting portion bent up- Wardly to form a flange 19 within back section 2 and parallel to flange 18. These flanges 18 and 19 form a collar for receiving the flue structure.

The flue structure comprises a substantially rectangular shaped neck 20 into which removable grease filters (not shown) may be secured in any suitable manner.

.The grease filters minimize the possibility of grease fires spreading into the vent system. The neck 20 is dimensioned to fit snugly between flanges 18 and 19, and is preferably secured thereto by bolts 21. If desired, the neck may fit over flanges 18 and 19 and be retained thereon as by frictional engagement.

Referring particularly to Figs. 2 and 5,neck 20 of the flue structure has parallel walls 22 and 23 extending rearwardly therefrom at an angle complementary to the angle of flanges 18 and 19. End walls 24 and 25 extend between opposite ends of walls 22 and 23 to form a short tubular conduit for the gases that pass through opening 16. The wall 22 and the adjacent portion of neck 20 extending beyond the ,edge of flange 19 seal the upper portion of the hollow back section 2 and cause all the exhaust gases to travel horizontally through the opening 16. A sheet metal member 24' is fabricated to fit around walls 22, 23, 24 .and 25 to form a tubular passageway for conducting the gases from the flue to a ventilating exhaust fan (not shown). The ends of wall 22 are provided with offsets 26 which form a stop against which the sheet metal member 24' abuts to assure proper positioning of the sheet metal member.

A trough 27 is secured to rear wall 14 below the bottom edge of opening 16 and slopes downwardly towards end wall 3. A drip pan 28 is removably secured to end wall 3 in any suitable manner below the lowermost end of the trough so that any grease that drips into the trough will fall into drip pan 28.

When the unit is to be used with a venting system requiring a vertical exhaust the flue structure is rotated on a horizontal plane from the position shown in Fig. 5, then tilted until walls 22 and 23 are vertical, and the flue structure is then inserted between the flanges 18 and 19 to which it is secured by bolts 21. In this position the wall 22 entirely closes opening 16 and the exhaust gases pass vertically through the short tubular conduit formed by walls 22, 23, 24 and 25. The movements of the fine structure just described are reversed if the flue structure is to be used with a venting system requiring a horizontal exhaust. A sheet metal member 29 is fabricated to fit around the walls 22, 23, 24 and 25 to form a tubular passageway for conducting the gases from the flue to a ventilating exhaust fan (not shown).

Although we have described a preferred embodiment of the invention in considerable detail, it will be understood that the description thereof is intended to be illustrative, rather than restrictive, as many details may be modified or changed without departing from the spirit or scope of the appended claim. Accordingly, we do not desire to be restricted to the exact details of con.- struction described.

We claim:

In combination with a food service equipment unit having a hollow back section comprising two vertical substantially flat front and rear plates spaced from each other, a rearwardly and upwardly extending flange ex tending at an angle of approximately 45 to. said front plate,.a second. rearwardly and upwardly extending flange extending from said rear plate parallellto said first flange,v and-a flue structure comprising a neck detachably engage-- 4 able with said flanges in either of two positions, said flue structure including a short tubular conduit extending from said neck at an angle of approximately 45.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 22,228 Petersen Dec. 1, 1942 228,075 Illing May25, 1880 272,720 Linscott Feb. 20, 1883 1,683,548 Hughey Sept. 4, 1928 1,921,056 Walker Aug. 8,. 19311 2,242,468 Holub May 20, 1941 2,593,702 Schneible Apr. 22, 1952 2,695,0l6 Miller NOV. 23, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 131,230 Austria Jan. 10, 1933 12,064 Great Britain Nov. 26, 1897 

